Giving money to baby Laura

Updated 5:41 pm, Friday, January 11, 2013

Photo: Lisa Krantz, San Antonio Express-News

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Antonio and Paula Villarreal, with their son, Jace, 3, sit with a photograph of their daughter, Laura, at their San Antonio home. Six-month-old Laura died in December, shortly after the discovery of an aggressive brain tumor. Money is being raised at GiveForward.com to help offset Laura's medical bills.

Antonio and Paula Villarreal, with their son, Jace, 3, sit with a photograph of their daughter, Laura, at their San Antonio home. Six-month-old Laura died in December, shortly after the discovery of an

Antonio Villarreal shows a photograph of his daughter, Laura, while she was in hospice, on his phone at their home in San Antonio on Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Laura passed away at the age of six months and 12 days on Dec. 2, 2012, shortly after the discovery of an aggressive brain tumor.

Antonio Villarreal shows a photograph of his daughter, Laura, while she was in hospice, on his phone at their home in San Antonio on Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Laura passed away at the age of six months and 12 days

Antonio and Paula Villarreal watch videos of their daughter, Laura, at their home in San Antonio on Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Laura passed away at the age of six months and 12 days on Dec. 2, 2012, shortly after the discovery of an aggressive brain tumor.

Antonio and Paula Villarreal watch videos of their daughter, Laura, at their home in San Antonio on Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Laura passed away at the age of six months and 12 days on Dec. 2, 2012, shortly after

Jace Villarreal, 3, walks by a memorial to his sister, Laura, at his home in San Antonio on Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Laura passed away at the age of six months and 12 days on Dec. 2, 2012, shortly after the discovery of an aggressive brain tumor.

Jace Villarreal, 3, walks by a memorial to his sister, Laura, at his home in San Antonio on Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Laura passed away at the age of six months and 12 days on Dec. 2, 2012, shortly after the

Photographs of Laura Villarreal, left, taken by her father, Antonio Villarreal, hang next to her ashes, right, on the mantel in front of a photograph also taken by Villarreal of Lake Tahoe, one of the family's favorite places, in their living room on Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Laura passed away at the age of six months and 12 days on Dec. 2, 2012, shortly after the discovery of an aggressive brain tumor.

Photographs of Laura Villarreal, left, taken by her father, Antonio Villarreal, hang next to her ashes, right, on the mantel in front of a photograph also taken by Villarreal of Lake Tahoe, one of the family's

Until recently, when friends or family of someone facing a serious medical crisis wanted to lend a financial hand, their options were limited: Dig into their own pockets, place empty mayonnaise jars at cash registers to collect spare change, or, if they were really ambitious, organize a spaghetti or barbecue fundraiser, perhaps with a local band providing entertainment.

Today, like so much of modern life, such efforts have moved online.

When Paula and Antonio Villarreal lost their 6-month-old daughter Laura to a rare and aggressive brain tumor in December, acquaintances set up a “Giving for Laura” page on the crowd-funding website GiveForward.com. Their goal: to raise $5,000 in donations to help defray medical bills expected to total $100,000 to $200,000.

“I get new bills in the mail every day,” says Paula, sitting in the family's tidy, comfortable kitchen on the near South Side recently. “Just today I got another one for $4,000.

The Villarreals are fortunate to have medical insurance. Still, they'll be responsible for about 15 percent of the total cost of their daughter's treatment — which could add up to $15,000 to $30,000. So whatever the “Giving for Laura” page raises is sure to help.

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Crowd-funding websites are online “mayonnaise jars” where interested parties can donate money to any number of causes: a band looking to produce a CD, a small business needing funds to expand or, in the case of the Villarreals, a family facing daunting medical bills. That's what GiveForward.com's founders intended when they launched the site in 2008. According to company president Ethan Austin, GiveForward soon became the go-to site for medical fundraisers.

And there's plenty of need. Medical debt is a contributing factor in 62 percent of all personal bankruptcy filings, according to a 2009 American Journal of Medicine study. That's not surprising, considering the out-of-pocket cost of one year of cancer treatment for someone with medical insurance can run as high as $8,500, according to Austin.

“At any moment we have about 5,000 campaigns in play, and we've raised a total of $30 million since we were founded,” he says. That includes $10 million in the last year alone.

Crowd-funding websites such as GiveForward.com have been around for about a decade, but the past few years have seen explosive growth. A total of about 525 platforms raised an estimated $2.8 billion in 2012, double the amount in 2011, according to Scott Steinberg, author of “The Crowdfunding Bible” (Read.me, $13.99). More than 1 million campaigns have been successfully crowd-funded.

“The beauty of crowd funding is you can reach the public at large without any filters to request money for virtually any cause,” says Steinberg, who is also a professional speaker on health care innovation.

Not every crowd-funding site accepts every campaign, however. Perhaps the best-known, kickstarter.com, serves creative projects exclusively, the performing arts, photography, design and the like, according to spokesman Justin Kazmark. If your campaign doesn't fit into any of the site's accepted categories, it will be rejected.

To ensure those running the campaign are properly motivated, some sites pay out only when the initial target is reached. This prevents donors from being disappointed when an under-funded project fails.

Austin from GiveForward.com says the site will accept nonmedical fundraisers, although they won't be promoted on its homepage. And recipients get whatever is pledged, even if the campaign doesn't meet the target.

“Any amount raised will still be helpful,” he says.

While many donate to crowd-funded projects out of pure altruism, some are looking for a more concrete payback. That struggling band may offer donors a complimentary copy of the CD they helped make possible. The newly expanded company may extend special discounts to its donors. People have gotten producer credits for crowd-funded movies.

Such benefits soon may get even more lucrative. A provision of President Barack Obama's JOBS Act will allow companies to sell up to $1 million in equity via online crowd-funding platforms.

Of course, crowd-funding websites are in business to make money, and most do so by taking a portion of funds raised, usually between 7 percent and 12 percent.

Laura Villarreal died on Dec. 2 from a rare type of brain tumor called atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, or ATRT. The cancer usually strikes children younger than 2 and only about 30 new cases are diagnosed each year. It's scarily aggressive: Even with surgery and chemotherapy, the survival rate for children younger than 3 is less than 10 percent, according to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The rate approached 70 percent in older children.

As of the second week of January, the Giving for Laura page had raised $1,540 of a $5,000 target, mostly from donations of $25 to $200. Many donors are either anonymous or they're people the Villarreals have never met.

“I look at the list of people and I know only one or two,” says Paula.

Indeed, Dana Boyd, the woman who set up the page, has never met the Villarreals face to face.

She'd heard their story through mutual friends from It Works!, a multilevel marketing company that specializes in a line of body contouring products. Both Villarreal and Boyd are sales associates with the company.

“Several women in my network and I wanted to do something for Paula,” she said. “But something more than send flowers.”

They talked about making a donation or hosting a fundraiser, and Boyd volunteered to do some research. That's when she happened upon the GiveForward.com website.

“It was easy to set up,” she says. “You get an online coach and there are plenty of tips on how to do it.

Because Boyd has other commitments, Paula Villarreal recently took over administration of the site, renaming it “Giving to Baby Laura” and raising the fundraising target to $25,000. She knows that's an optimistic goal, but she's an optimistic woman.